photography: Celia Pearson “I was drawn to the kitchen’s vintage iron-frame windows,” says Miles, who added bird feeders, a bamboo pergola, and cascading akebia vines outside.

photography: Celia Pearson Miles painted diamonds on the wood floor and a "Chinese Gold" on the walls of her living room for a dramatic effect. “I knew I wanted a glowing gold for the walls, but the mustard yellow wasn’t right until I applied a terra-cotta tinted glaze,” Miles says.

She challenged herself to deliver drama in the small adjacent living room and worked up dynamic finishes for the walls and wood floor. "The floor pattern had to be bold and oversized to give the room stature, so I painted black-and-white squares on the diagonal," she says. "Chinese gold was what I was after on the walls, but starting with a mustard yellow didn't work until I glazed it pink." That warmed and deepened the brash yellow to more of a terra-cotta. This theatrical backdrop—"the stage," as she puts it—led to slip-covering a group of flea market upholstered pieces as neutral, staple fixtures. Her subsequent layering with mirrors, a mantel clock, and a painting in a round frame epitomizes her philosophy. "It's all about giving the eye lots to feast on—not clutter, but choice accents," she emphasizes.